In 1966 he became an unusually young professor when he took the chair at the newly founded Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. There he became involved in the excavation (1961–68) of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex. Another site in southern England led him away from the Roman period. He began a long series of summer excavations (1969–88) of the Iron Agehill fort at Danebury, Hampshire and was subsequently involved in the Danebury Environs Programme (1989–95). His interest in Iron Age Britain and Europe generated a number of publications and he became an acknowledged authority on the Celts.